The invention relates to emergency response systems, emergency equipment and tracking of the emergency equipment, and to communication devices and processes used in responding to emergencies.
Government has long held a responsibility to respond with rapid efficiency to geographically diverse, public emergencies. This need to coordinate the expedient dispatch of resources is intended to save lives, reduce injury and prevent any further loss of property. While the elements of natural disasters, traffic collisions and terrorism are greatly diverse, the solutions to efficiently responding to them are strikingly similar. The earliest arrival by emergency resources at an emergency site is the best way to respond to any emergency. Therefore, it is indisputable that given equal rates of response and equal paths to the incident site, the geographically closest resource to any site will arrive first and begin the resolution phase of a situation.
In struggling to meet the demands of managing a mobile society, the evolution of motorized travel is only one example depicting the burgeoning responsibility of managing resources to handle emergencies. The governmental responsibility to respond to motorized vehicle emergencies must have begun with the world's first motor vehicle fatality occurring when an Irish scientist was run over by a steam car in 1869. Undoubtedly, help must have been summoned in a very primitive manner for that first tragedy. Many years and safety innovations later, the global economic cost of motor vehicle collisions has grown to an estimated $518 billion per year in 2003 with $100 billion of that occurring in developing countries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the U.S. cost in 2000 was $230 billion. In 2003 the Oakridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee completed a study revealing that 99 billion dollars are lost each year in workers' hours due to specific congestion situations on the nation's freeways. This congestion was related to traffic slowing for incidents that blocked lanes, many of which required a tow truck to clear damaged or disabled vehicles.
While communication devices have developed to summon assistance, the process to select and provide proper resources is still in primitive stages. With extensive experience in transportation, one can expect to witness the loss of life and property resulting from inadequate methods used to provide assistance at emergencies. In July, 2008, the Department of Homeland Security through the National Emergency Communications Plan, indicated the vital need for improving emergency communications for the Nation's Federal, State, local, and tribal emergency responders. Its goals included the development of protocols to effectively use their resources and personnel with emerging technologies which integrate current emergency communication and enhance response capabilities.
During a 30 year career with the Arizona Highway Patrol, the Applicant had the opportunity to witness the need for expedient response of resources to public emergencies. Applicant dealt with a wide spectrum of events from individual accidents to large planned events such as national emergency drills. In thousands of incidents, Applicant experienced the inefficiencies of the current resource management system with which ancillary resources for government emergencies are selected and deployed. While acting as Department of Public Safety representative at Arizona's State Emergency Operations Center, Applicant developed a sense of the importance of the response to emergencies at every level. For decades, available technology only allowed for telephone and radio communication and the selection of potentially available resources through a simple rotation system. The rotation system had no guarantee that the resources were coordinated by their proximity to the emergency. During the last national emergency drill, coordinated by FEMA in 2007 named TOPOFF 4, Applicant was one of the planners for the portion of the terrorism scenario that occurred in Phoenix. The focal point was law enforcement's initial response and their coordination of ancillary resources. Many resources were still selected by a simple rotation method using an availability list without regard to their immediate proximity to the simulated terrorist attack. In order to construct such a list, contractors who wish to be available to provide services contact the authorities and ask their name to be placed on the list. When the need arises, the list is consulted and the next party on the list who will provide those services is contacted. If their services are utilized, their name is crossed off and they are not contacted until the next rotation. This rotation method has been adopted over a period of years to ensure the equitable distribution of service calls between towing companies, without regard to finding the closest available truck to the incident. This method does not provide the quickest clearance for events that produce congestion, and this results in collateral accidents. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that for every minute lane closures on a highway are delayed from being opened, the probability of a secondary automobile accident increases by about 2.8%. It is apparent that these limited technologies have impeded other resource managers.
Many federal agencies, including FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have placed the communication and rapid coordination of ancillary emergency resources as a top priority. FEMA's Response Directorate requires a “disaster response capability needed to save and sustain lives, minimize suffering, and protect property in a timely and effective manner in communities that become overwhelmed by natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other emergencies”.
FEMA's priorities were reflected by the Federal Highway Administration in 2010 when it adopted specific goals and strategies related to emergency resource management. These were proposed by the National Traffic Incident Management Coalition (NTIMC) and formed what became known as the National Unified Goal. The NTIMC Goals are responder safety; safe, quick clearance; and prompt, reliable, interoperable communications. The NTIMC states it will achieve these goals through 18 strategies including a commitment to setting goals for traffic incident response and clearance times, and working together for rapid and coordinated implementation of beneficial new technologies for traffic incident management.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has long recognized that the Four E's of traffic safety are Engineering, Education, Enforcement and Emergency Response. In September 2010, Applicant conducted a national survey to determine what protocol each state's highway patrols employed to request resources for response to events creating freeway congestion. The results indicated that 90% of the states simply used a rotation list to summon assistance to clear blocking vehicles. The remaining states used a sole provider system based on one company winning the contract for all tows, with the exception of one state that allowed troopers to select tow providers on individual preference.
It was through the results of this survey that Applicant confirmed the national scope and importance of his effort to reduce the amount of time needed for emergency response resources to reach emergency sites. The failure to provide the quickest response to emergencies affects every government response to an emergency when civilian or other third party emergency response resources are summoned to assist. DHS, FEMA, and countless state/local agencies all contract with civilian resources to resolve emergencies under government responsibility. For example, the DHS depends on state police to expeditiously remove vehicles blocking an evacuation route during a terror strike. FEMA actions necessitate the response of contracted civilian equipment to reinforce floodplain levees. Time is of the essence and the guarantee and confirmation that required resources are en route is essential. Therefore, there is a need for better communication system between emergency response resources and the person at the scene of an emergency managing all resources, and there is a need for confirmation that the closest resources are en route to the scene.